 |
Bob Coronato | |
|---|---|
 Artist of Western Americana | |
| Born | Robert Michael Coronato May 25, 1970 |
| Nationality | American |
Robert "Bob" Coronato (born May 25, 1970) is an American painter and printmaker. Coronato is best known for his paintings of present-day Western Americana, cowboys, and American Indian life and culture.
Bob Coronato was born in Newton, New Jersey. [1] His mother was an executive assistant, and his father was a C.P.A. As a boy he loved to draw and paint. He would stare at the paintings of the "Old West" in history books and be fascinated by the culture and way of life. He and everyone around him knew he wanted to be an artist. While in high school Coronato began painting murals and commission paintings for money and trade.
When Coronato was 18 he moved to New York City and took a summer course in illustration at Parsons School of Art and Design and New School for Social Research. He realized he needed to be closer to the subject matter he always wanted to paint and applied to Otis Parsons' sister school in California. [2]
In 1991, while attending Otis Parsons in L.A., Coronato took a vacation to Wyoming and South Dakota. [3] He visited the High Plains Heritage Museum in Spearfish, South Dakota which had advertised that they had original Charles Russell and Frederic Remington oil paintings.
After not seeing any paintings, he talked to the curator, Leo Giacometto. Giacometto told him that the collection had been pulled. The museum was to have a grand re-opening the following spring. Coronato asked if he could contribute paintings for the event. Giacometto said that if he liked the paintings he would give Coronato a show during the re-opening. [4]
Coronato proceeded to turn every assignment into Western subject matter in oil on canvas, to prepare for the show. Coronato tortured his instructors by doing this: If the assignment was to paint an advertisement for an automobile, Coronato would paint a covered wagon. After graduating from Otis Parsons with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, [3] Coronato returned to Spearfish and was granted his first museum show at the age of 23. [5]
Coronato decided to get closer to his subject matter. He moved to a town with a population of less than 400 in the heart of "Cowboy Country" — Hulett, Wyoming — based on a recommendation he got at the museum show in South Dakota by a local saddle maker. [4] The saddle maker offered the "starving artist" space above his saddle shop to work and live in while Coronato got settled. Eventually the relationship with the saddle maker became invaluable to the direction the young artist's career would take.
Coronato was introduced to many of the ranches in the area. Soon Coronato was free labor in exchange for the chance to capture the life of modern cowboys. His days were spent at brandings, helping to gather cattle, or just fixing fence on ranches as big as 300,000 acres. His nights were spent painting the events he had witnessed. George White, foremen of the I.P.Y ranch, [6] and his wife Vicki took Coronato under their wing. They made sure he didn't "get himself killed", as George would say. He was always welcome and much of his early work comes from events and scenes from that ranch.
After diving into the "cowboy" way of life Coronato was introduced to Tom Waugh. Waugh is an artist specializing in Native American subject matter and a dealer in Native American artifacts. He introduced Coronato to the world of collecting and painting this subject matter. Coronato began studying American Indian culture, past and present. He began collecting American Indian artifacts and soon he was drawn to the many nearby reservations. Hulett is in a hub very close to the Crow, Cheyenne, and Sioux Indian reservations.
Coronato started visiting the reservations. He witnessed the beauty and tradition that was in practice. Coronato admires and respects the American Indians and their strength as a society. He wanted to share his experiences through his work and began painting the modern life on the reservations through depicting their practice of traditions. Coronato's work evolved from painting historical scenes to only painting what he saw in the present. Coronato was soon invited to attend Crow Fair on the Crow Agency in Montana and other ceremonies held on reservations throughout Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota.
After Coronato had spent many years painting in oils, he decide to draw. He had always been influenced by Edward Borein and admired his intaglio copper plate etchings. Coronato began making plates and printing them in his studio in Wyoming in the late 1990s. [7] Coronato is very successful intaglio printmaker [7] who has produced numerous images. He was dubbed the "Leonardo da Vinci of Cowboy Art" by the New York Post [8] and has mastered the skill of original printmaking. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
While trying to produce more work, Coronato had been experimenting on combining the three mediums for nearly eight years. Coronato found a new way of combining his intaglio printmaking with his love of oil painting. The pittura di strati medium of silkscreen, oil, and acrylic is the only way to achieve the effect he wanted. Coronato wanted to explore the age-old tradition of silk screen with cutting-edge techniques with the drawing and imagery from his etchings. [9]
Coronato begins by texturing a board with thick gesso. Multiple layers of acrylic paint are applied, and on top of the acrylic goes the silk screened line work. Layers of translucent oil paint are slowly built up. Oil can create fine glazes, transparent and slow to dry. As each layer builds up, they create effects of light and texture not possible with other painting techniques. This glazing technique is very similar to that of the artists of the Italian Renaissance, giving the paint a luminous quality. [10]
By combining the painting mediums and the dozens of translucent layers of oil paint, the pittura di strati technique refines the work to a unique style of painting. Because of all the variables in the layering, glazing, and varnishing, paintings in the series are unique and can vary in color, texture, etc. Similar to the bronze method of producing art, the end result is the original intention of the artist, and all the steps through the process are the only way to get to the end finished piece.
In 2007 after attending hundreds of small town rodeos, Coronato was inspired to create rodeo posters in a vintage turn of the century style but using modern day imagery and techniques. Using pittura di strati, he began producing rodeo poster paintings he has become most known for. [9] [10] [11]
In 2017 Bob’s painting/Portrait of Russell Means went on display in Washington DC in the National Portrait Gallery Hall of Contemporaries. This image is 75 5/8”× 38 1/8” × 2 1/4" and features Russell Means draped in an upside down American flag. Russell Means was Oglala Lakota Sioux. In 1968, he joined the American Indian Movement (AIM), a militant activist organization. When AIM occupied Wounded Knee, site of the infamous nineteenth-Century massacre of the Sioux, in 1973, Means was the organization’s spokesperson. The siege grew into a seventy-one day confrontation between armed AIM members and the federal authorities. Means left the group in 1988. Artist Bob Coronato wanted to honor Means, who agreed to sit for him as long as the portrait conveyed that “Indians are not the idea of old Hollywood westerns or to be thought of as ‘in the past’ but a people very much of today, and with a rich history.” The artist and Means decided to include the upside-down flag, a sign used by the Navy as a symbol of distress and that AIM often displayed during protests.
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of special significance and legend. A subtype, called a wrangler, specifically tends the horses used to work cattle. In addition to ranch work, some cowboys work for or participate in rodeos. Cowgirls, first defined as such in the late 19th century, had a less-well documented historical role, but in the modern world work at identical tasks and have obtained considerable respect for their achievements. Cattle handlers in many other parts of the world, particularly South America and stockmen and jackaroos in Australia, perform work similar to the cowboy.
Charles Marion Russell, also known as C. M. Russell, Charlie Russell, and "Kid" Russell, was an American artist of the American Old West. He created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Native Americans, and landscapes set in the western United States and in Alberta, Canada, in addition to bronze sculptures. He is known as "the cowboy artist" and was also a storyteller and author. He became an advocate for Native Americans in the west, supporting the bid by landless Chippewa to have a reservation established for them in Montana. In 1916, Congress passed legislation to create the Rocky Boy Reservation.
Frederic Sackrider Remington was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in the genre of Western American Art. His works are known for depicting the Western United States in the last quarter of the 19th century and featuring such images as cowboys, American Indians, and the US Cavalry.
Timothy John Fitzgerald McCoy was an American actor, military officer, and expert on American Indian life. McCoy is most noted for his roles in B-grade Western films. As a popular cowboy film star, he appeared in front of a Wheaties cereal box.
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, with more than 28,000 Western and American Indian art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world's most extensive collection of American rodeo photographs, barbed wire, saddlery, and early rodeo trophies. Museum collections focus on preserving and interpreting the heritage of the American West. The museum becomes an art gallery during the annual Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition and Sale each June. The Prix de West Artists sell original works of art as a fund raiser for the museum. The expansion and renovation was designed by Curtis W. Fentress, FAIA, RIBA of Fentress Architects.
Bryant Butler Brooks was an American businessman, rancher, politician, oilman, banker and published author. He was the seventh governor of Wyoming from January 2, 1905 until January 2, 1911.
Western lifestyle or cowboy culture is the lifestyle, or behaviorisms, of, and resulting from the influence of, the attitudes, ethics and history of the American Western cowboy. In the present day these influences affect this sector of the population's choice of recreation, clothing, and consumption of goods.
Cheyenne Frontier Days is an outdoor rodeo and western celebration in the United States, held annually since 1897 in Cheyenne, Wyoming. It bills itself as the "World's Largest Outdoor Rodeo and Western Celebration." The event, claimed to be one of the largest of its kind in the world, draws nearly 200,000 annually. Lodging fills up quickly during the peak tourist season throughout southern and eastern Wyoming, into northern Colorado and western Nebraska. The celebration is held during the ten days centered about the last full week of July. In 2008, Cheyenne Frontier Days was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.
Earl Wesley Bascom was an American painter, printmaker, sculptor, cowboy, rodeo performer, inventor, and Hollywood actor. Raised in Canada, he portrayed in works of fine art his own experiences of cowboying and rodeoing across the American and Canadian West. Bascom was awarded the Pioneer Award by the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 2016 and inducted into several halls of fame including the Canadian Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1984. Bascom was called the "Cowboy of Cowboy Artists," the "Dean of Rodeo Cowboy Sculpture" and the "Father of Modern Rodeo." He was a participant member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
James Elliott Bama was an American artist known for his realistic paintings and etchings of Western subjects. Life in Wyoming led to his comment, "Here an artist can trace the beginnings of Western history, see the first buildings, the oldest wagons, saddles and guns, and be up close to the remnants of Indian culture ... And you can stand surrounded by nature's wonders."
Jackson Sundown, born Waaya-Tonah-Toesits-Kahn, was a Native American rodeo rider who has become a folk-hero for his mythic performance in the 1916 Pendleton Round-Up, largely popularized by Ken Kesey's novel The Last Go 'Round.
Renne Hughes born in Lamesa, Texas, was an American painter and photographer who became known for his depictions of the American West. Renne won awards and achievements across the U.S. and abroad and in 1978 he was officially awarded the Texas State Artist title. By the mid 1980s his fan base and body of work caught the attention of Zsa Zsa Gabor and President Ronald Reagan, who famously acquired his artwork on an issue of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Harold Dow Bugbee was an American Western artist, illustrator, painter, and curator of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas. Bugbee sought with considerable success to become the dominant artist of the Texas South Plains, as his role model, Charles M. Russell of Montana, accordingly sketched life of the northern Great Plains.
Jack Van Ryder was an American cowboy and western artist, his colorful life was a series of cinematic moments, the fodder that inspired his distinctively western art. He punched cows and drove freight wagons. He chased wild horses and rode bucking broncos all the way from the Powder River to the Gila, from Cheyenne to Carson City, from Butte to Bisbee. Ryder's soft pastels colored paintings captured the dusty brooding southwestern twilight skies.
Moses Stranger Horse (1890–1941) was a Brulé Lakota realist painter from the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
Daniel Cody Muller, generally known as Dan Muller (1889–1976) was a cowboy, an artist, illustrator, and writer of the American West. Having grown up on a ranch, he learned to break in horses, a skill he utilized for the United States Army during World War I. He made and sold paintings of the American Old West and worked occasionally as a ranch hand into the 1920s. In 1933, his first published story was Break 'Em Gentle for Esquire magazine. He wrote and illustrated books, like Chico of the Cross Up Ranch and Horses. He created three large murals for the Chicago World's Fair which were awarded a gold medal and a $1,200 cash prize.
Henry Real Bird, a member of the Crow Nation, is a poet.
Pete Martinez (1894–1970) was an American cowboy artist who specialized in drawing, printmaking, and watercolor. He is best known for his illustration and prints of Arizona desert landscapes and images of cowboy life.
Harry Andrew Jackson, born Harry Aaron Shapiro Jr., was an American artist. He began his career as a Marine combat artist, then later worked in the abstract expressionist, realist, and American western styles.
Western American Art includes artistic work which depicts the subjects related to the Western American region, and was treated as impoverished, unwanted and unworthy art before the twentieth century, during which period it achieved respectability as a rewarding region for studying. The term holds a characteristic of narration that is different from the Modern art which focuses on abstraction. For the narration, Western American art focuses on subject than style. Considering as a national art, the subjects are distinct from the European art, namely, there is no elements from other region like Europe. Cowboys and Indians are two well-known subjects and they consist the important part of artistic work of Western American art, demonstrating the daily life and activities of cowboys and American Indian in western American.